HealthLeaders MediaGetting ICD-10 right will have a direct effect on providers' bottom line, but "the real impact comes… from coding accurately to properly reflect the severity and condition of the patient… that is so much of what value-based arrangements are based on these days," says one health plan executive. After years of delays, the healthcare industry finally made the transition to ICD-10 on Thursday, Oct. 1. Executives at four health plans share the top five things they want providers to know.READ MORE

ProPublica & NPRA bill recently proposed by two U.S. senators would require drugmakers and medical device manufacturers to publicly disclose their payments to nurse practitioners and physician assistants for promotional talks, consulting, meals and other interactions. The legislation would close a loophole in the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which requires companies to report such payments to doctors, dentists, chiropractors, optometrists and podiatrists. Companies have so far released more than 15 million payment records, covering August 2013 to December 2014.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaHaving stared at tables full of ICD-10 reference books last week at AHIMA's annual convention and flipping through a few code books myself, many can sympathize with those clinicians and coders who are looking up all the new billing codes on paper. But why would anyone put themselves through that? It is too early to take anything like an ICD-10 victory lap — and there are future implications of the new code set that I address later in this column. But the initial reports are that those who prepared, and armed themselves with a technology assist, are doing okay with ICD-10 so far.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaWhen 5,500 physician leaders, practice managers, and other healthcare advisors descend on Nashville in a few days for MGMA's annual conference, the message they'll get from President and CEO, Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, MMM, FAAP, is one that may be uncomfortable to hear. "The keynote speech I'm giving is 'Stop Whining and Start Leading,'" Fischer-Wright says. "It's about how physicians need to stop complaining. Effective cultures require strong leadership."READ MORE

The Dallas Morning NewsTeladoc Inc., which lets patients meet with doctors over the Internet, will overcome the loss of an insurer deal and prove its stock rout is overdone, chief executive Jason Gorevic said. The shares have slid more than 25 percent since Deutsche Bank said that a Pennsylvania insurer didn’t plan to renew a contract with Teladoc. Gorevic said that deal with Highmark Health Inc., accounted for about $1.5 million in annual revenue.READ MORE

Harvard Business ReviewHealthcare remains one of the few services that require people to have a face-to-face interaction to obtain access. But more and more consumers are questioning that reality, and change is on the way. In January 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a new provider reimbursement code for non–face-to-face healthcare services for patients who have chronic medical conditions. A new CMS code may seem like a tiny matter, but this one emblemizes a larger shift toward delivering health services independently of time and place, enabled by technologies such as smartphones, sensors, and wireless health-monitoring devices — what we in the field call telemedicine.READ MORE

Kaiser Health News via U.S. News & World ReportThere is a good chance that your once-independent doctor is now employed by a hospital. Dr. Michael Reilly, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, orthopedic surgeon, does not believe this is good for physicians, patients or society. For years he watched Broward Health, a nonprofit Florida hospital system, hire community doctors, pay them millions and minutely track the revenue they generated from admissions, procedures and tests.READ MORE

Midland Reporter-TelegramA report by the Association of American Medical Colleges shows that the U.S. will face a significant physician shortage by 2025 – a shortage West Texas already is seeing, according to education professionals. Staff from the University of North Texas Health Science Center spoke during a MC-sponsored luncheon to discuss the new partnership between UNT, MC and Midland Memorial Hospital. The aim of Primary Care Pathway is to bring more primary care physicians to the area.READ MORE

Healthcare IT NewsChip Kahn III, President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, is not shy about giving his opinion. After all, he's been steeped in healthcare policy at the national level throughout his career. He taught healthcare policy at Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University and Tulane University. His keynote speech at the HIMSS Policy Summit during National Health IT Week on Wednesday had the markings of someone who revels in putting healthcare policy issues in context.READ MORE

Sacramento Business JournalGov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation that requires weekly updates to health-service provider directories so people know what doctors and hospitals are in their network when they shop for coverage or seek care. Senate Bill 137 by West Covina Democrat Ed Hernandez responds to consumer complaints about inaccurate online directories. READ MORE

CBS NewsNearly all doctors in a new study say they would go to work while sick with a cold, and more than a third say they would work if they had the flu. The findings are based on a survey of 474 doctors at an academic hospital in California who were at various stages in their medical careers. The doctors were asked whether they'd be willing to work if they certain symptoms or conditions.READ MORE

UCLA Scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have shown that the cells responsible for generating deadly prostate cancer share some genetic qualities with the tissue-specific stem cells that naturally reside in the healthy prostate. The findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.READ MORE

Medical XpressKidneys are not romanticized like the heart, or held on high like the brain. But these fist-sized organs are integral to our ability to filter waste and excess fluid from our bodies. And they're a pain in the midriff when they go wrong. But now it's possible to grow new kidneys from scratch – at least small ones. This breakthrough in bioengineering was published today in Nature and is a big step forward in regenerative medicine.READ MORE